United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain said he can’t see “any way in hell” how former President Trump would get a union endorsement, since the the former president does not represent working-class people.
During his appearance on CNN’s “The Source” on Thursday night, Fain was asked by anchor Kaitlan Collins how he would evaluate the labor movement if International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien endorsed Trump.
“What it would say to you if he endorses Trump, and what it would say for the labor movement overall?” Collins asked.
Fain said he can’t see a possibility of a union endorsing the current GOP front-runner since he does not stand for the labor movement.
“I’m not gonna try to answer for Sean O’Brien, but I would 100 percent bet that I can’t see any way in hell a union would endorse Donald Trump for president,” Fain said. “The man stands against everything that working-class people stand for, that organized labor stands for. You know, look, they chose to entertain visiting with candidates, and that’s a path they chose. I mean, I saw no point in it because I look at the track record of Donald Trump. I mean, his two favorite words are, ‘You’re fired.’”
Trump and O’Brien met Wednesday in Washington, D.C., to discuss a possible endorsement. After the meeting, Trump told reporters “stranger things have happened” when commenting on the potential endorsement.
Trump has been criticizing Fain since the UAW’s endorsement of President Biden last week, saying he is wrecking the U.S. automobile industry by believing in “Biden’s vision,” which would require all electric vehicles to be made in China, according to Trump.
“He bought into Biden’s ‘vision’ of all electric vehicles, which require far fewer workers to make each car but, more importantly, are not wanted in large numbers by the consumer, and will ALL be made in China,” Trump wrote on Truth Social over the weekend. ”I want them to be made in the USA, every type of car, and would require China, and other countries, through TARIFFS, or otherwise, to build plants here, with our workers.”
The UAW’s endorsement of Biden is a huge boost for the president’s reelection bid, as he hopes to sway blue-collar workers in swing states such as Wisconsin and Michigan that seemed to have soured on the commander in chief, according to some polls.
“He’s the boss; he represents the billionaire class,” Fain said while continuing to describe Trump. “That’s his base, and so when you look at the two candidates on our end, you know, Joe Biden has a history of betting on the American worker, standing with the American worker, just as he did in our strike this year.”
Biden notably joined a UAW picket line last year.